TRENTON — The school district has already looked at 10 possible locations where Trenton Central High School students can learn while the old school is demolished and a new one is built, Principal Hope Grant told parents and residents at a meeting tonight.

Grant said that while no final decisions have been made, officials have toured former schools and some other large, unused spaces in Trenton. So far, they have not been able to find anything large enough to hold the entire student population.

“There is no building that we have been able to identify that can hold all 1,800 students,” Grant said.

The former Holiday Inn at West State and Calhoun streets was an option, Grant said, but noted that there are only two small elevators for access. The group also looked at the former NJN public television offices on Stockton Street, but the space was too small, Grant said.

The district has identified several buildings that could hold each of the school’s Small Learning Communities, where students are grouped according to subject areas, in separate locations, she said.

“We will not be all together in the next couple of years,” she said.

The old high school, in a state of deterioration for years, would be mostly replaced in a $130 million project. Construction would take up to five years and could begin as soon as September. School and state officials have given preliminary approvals to the work, but more planning is needed.

Many of the schools that Grant said she thinks would serve well as temporary schools are locations that have already served that purpose and have classrooms, a cafeteria and a gymnasium.

“In these small schools, we can create a really great, more personalized experience,” Grant said.

Each location would be tailored to the needs of the small learning community that would be housed there, she said. Each location would be overseen by the vice principal who is already assigned to the individual learning community, and one principal would oversee all of the locations, Grant said.

She said the district is also looking to have a separate location to house school operations, like offices and shipping and receiving, housing records and registration.

Some things will have to be sorted out once a plan is agreed to, Grant said. For instance, there are not enough advanced placement students in the high school to offer AP classes at each location.

Grant noted that none of the locations that the group has looked at have athletic fields or a football field, so the district will need to find one. After-school activities will also be an organizational problem because students would need transportation, Grant said.

“Our district has never undertaken a task this large,” she said.

“There are going to be some growing pains,” Grant said. “We are trying to figure out how to create the best possible experience for the students.”

Officials have considered sending students to a location out of district, but they want to avoid doing that, Grant said, noting that the district would lose funding for students sent out of Trenton.

Tishea McCoy, a parent who came to the meeting, said she was pleased to see that the district is already looking at places for the students to go during construction. She said she was interested to know what would happen next for her son, who is a freshman at the school.

“I just wanted to know where they were going to put the kids and how long it would take,” she said.

Ricky Wylie, a member of the PTA board, said the final project will be worth all of the hassle over the next few years.

“This is a huge undertaking,” Wylie said.

He said he would welcome each learning community being in its own location, because it would give the teachers and students a more connected environment.

“It gives the teachers more occasions to work with the students and reach out to the parents,” Wylie said.

Wylie said his son is able to walk to school from his house now, so transportation is a concern for him.

“Here, everybody can watch him, make sure he gets home on time,” Wylie said. “I am concerned about going into different neighborhoods and all that, and the logistics of getting there.”

PTA president Mike Goodman said he is glad to see Grant willing to give so much information about the process to parents and community members.

“We need to keep the community involved and the lines of communication open,” he said.